Coping through play
Maureen Scott-Nash has worked with Grove House for over twelve years and runs a play therapy clinic at the hospice on Wednesday mornings. Maureen is a Freelance Social Worker and Play therapist and has many years experience working with children and their families.
Play Therapy is a form of counselling for children that uses play to provide an opportunity for the child to express painful and traumatic experiences in a secure and healing therapeutic space.
" My role," explains Maureen "Is to create a safe and trusting relationship with the child that enables them to express deeply held emotions around the loss and change in their lives. To experience a life threatening illness and/or bereavement of a beloved parent or close family member can be traumatic for a child. Frequently they feel overwhelmed by these events and experience a mixture of confusing and stressful emotions. Many feel unable to find the words to express feelings of grief, sadness and fear. Play is the language of the child and in play therapy I provide an eclectic mix of art, drama, music, story making, narrative, sand and clay to enable them to explore, enact and share their emotions around these distressing events. Exploring their worries and fears through the safety of play enables the child to begin a journey of understand ing, accepting and managing their pain and grief."
Play Therapy at Grove House can be offered for children from the ages of four to eleven who have experienced the loss of a close family member or whose parent or close relative is undergoing treatment for a life-threatening illness. It can also be of great benefit to children who themselves have cancer or life-threatening illness and are finding the journey though their illness a hard one to make.
Jamie* was just nine years old when he was diagnosed with leukaemia. He found the very invasive treatment difficult to deal with and was particularly upset when his school friends taunted him when his hair began to fall out as a result of the chemotherapy. Jamie was referred to Maureen, within weeks he became more accepting of the treatment and his illness, his self-esteem returned and he learnt how to cope with the taunts at school and he managed to overcome his fear of needles.
Play Therapy is just one of eight specialist free services offered by Grove House.
* Name changed to protect anonymity